Previews

E3 2010: Fallout: New Vegas Hands-on

Welcome to the Interrogation Room, GameSpy's signature pre-release game coverage format. Here, a GameSpy editor (typically one who's relatively in-the-dark about the game in question) grills his peers for information on a hotly anticipated game -- hopefully with more entertaining results than the typical boilerplate preview would provide.

Ryan Scott, Executive Editor: How's Fallout: New Vegas looking? They better have some good single-deck blackjack games on this post-apocalyptic Strip.

Will Tuttle, Editor in Chief: Why aren't I surprised that blackjack is the first thing you asked about? Blackjack's definitely in, but I can neither confirm or deny that the post-apocalyptic dealers us a single deck. Were you planning on using your leet card-counting skills to take that fake casino for all of the fake money in its fake coffers?

Ryan Scott: Maybe! Then I could buy a fake yacht and live the fake high life with all my fake mutant supermodel girlfriends. Anyway, how's this fake game? Did they learn more colors besides brown and gray this time?

Will Tuttle: Have you been to Las Vegas recently? It's not exactly a lush wilderness right now, so imagine what the arid area around the city would look like after a nuclear apocalypse. Fallout: New Vegas looks a lot like Fallout 3, although the developers from Obsidian Entertainment were quick to point out that the area's base topography isn't quite as hilly as Washington DC's. Speaking of Obsidian, a lot of the folks there (including its always-entertaining founder Feargus Urquhart) worked on Fallout and Fallout 2 back in the old Black Isle Studios/Interplay days.

Ryan Scott: So is this game gonna be more in line with what the previous ones were? I know some folks were up-in-arms about how drastically Fallout 3 was changed from the first two games, in terms of its presentation. Is this game going to make those people happier, you think?

Will Tuttle: Yes and no. Fallout: New Vegas is still a first-person role-playing game like Fallout 3, and many of the game mechanics are nearly identical to those found in Fallout 3. You still bring up and peruse your Pip-Boy page by page to change your weapon or set waypoints on the map, and the VATS system seems to be just about the same. The developers even said that they improved the first-person controls, so that players would have more fun playing it as a straight-up first-person shooter (that is, not using VATS).

However, if you're a longtime fan that hated the direction Bethesda went with Fallout 3, you'll be happy to hear that Obsidian hasn't turned its back on you. The development team is actually looking at New Vegas as the spiritual successor to the beloved Fallout 2, so old school fans can expect to see a ton of in-jokes and possibly even some old friends.